Alnwick and District Camera Club

Published:15:00Thursday 08 October 2015

Professional photographer Jed Wee was the speaker at Alnwick and District Camera Club, presenting Camera Eclectica.

After achieving a law degree at Durham University, Jed decided to follow his passion for photography and joined a sports agency, before going freelance in 2008, operating under the title Essence of Light.

He first spoke about sports photography, showing a wonderful set of pictures covering football, rugby, boxing, athletics, swimming, tennis and cycling. He explained how he was always on the lookout for something different that would tell a story and make his pictures stand out.

Jed gave advice on composition and backgrounds, and pointed out that excellent sport pictures can be achieved by the non-professional by choosing good spectator-accessible positions. He also pointed out that opportunities for exciting images can be found by visiting minor events where access is much less restricted.

Jed went on to talk about photographing birds and animals and showed an impressive sequence of pictures of British wildlife. His pictures of more exotic creatures, such as lions and orangutans, were mainly of captive animals, but his skilful selection of backgrounds and use of close-ups produced extremely convincing results. Nevertheless, he made it clear that he would not enter such pictures in wildlife competitions.

Jed then talked about the photography workshops he runs at Swinton Birds of Prey centre in North Yorkshire and showed an enticing series of pictures taken there.

His final subject was landscape photography, again illustrated with fine images, including moving water, reflections and wonderful skies. His advice was to stop and look around for alternative viewpoints before using your camera.

Taking pictures at night is a more challenging undertaking, but Jed showed his mastery with pictures that included impressive star trails.

To conclude a most inspiring and informative evening, Jed showed a brief, but memorable video of time lapse images of the countryside.